Miscellaneous Texts, Part 2

58   59   60   61   62   63   64  

58 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003471/]

This text, which is written on several bricks from Aššur, is the only known official inscription of Tiglath-pileser III that mentions his parentage ("son of Adad-nārārī [III]"). This could, of course, be taken literally, in which case Tiglath-pileser would have been born toward the end of Adad-nārārī III's reign since that Assyrian king ascended the throne in 811 and died in 783, after a twenty-eight-year reign. In this scenario, Tiglath-pileser would have been about forty or slightly older when he ascended the throne in 745 and about sixty when he died in 727. A fragmentary line in a royal edict, probably from the reign of Adad-nārārī III (Kataja and Whiting, SAA 12 no. 13 rev. 3), mentions a certain Tiglath-pileser (^m[GIŠ].⸢tukul⸣-ti-A-é-šár-ra) who may have served in some official position at that time. If this individual is to be identified with Tiglath-pileser III, he would have to have been born earlier than stated above and thus he would have ascended the throne when he was much older, possibly when he was more than fifty years of age. Alternatively, it has been suggested that Tiglath-pileser was Adad-nārārī III's grandson. In support of this proposal, the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary (SDAS) exemplar of the Assyrian King List (Gelb, JNES 13 [1964] p. 222; and Grayson, RLA 6/1–2 [1980] p. 115 §76) states that Tiglath-pileser was the son of his immediate predecessor, Aššur-nārārī V, and therefore the grandson of Adad-nārārī III. That version of the Assyrian King List, however, could contain a scribal error, where "son of Aššur-nārārī (V)" was written in lieu of "brother of Aššur-nārārī (V)" (Grayson, CAH² 3/2 p. 73; cf. Yamada, Studies H. and M. Tadmor p. 270*). Tadmor referred to this brick inscription as Misc. III, 1 in his Tigl. III.

Access Tiglath-pileser III 58 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003471/]

Sources [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/sources/P450237,P450237,P450238,P450239,P450240,P450241,P373566]:

Commentary

The texts of exs. 1 and 6 are inscribed within frames measuring 6.5×25 cm and 6.5×20 cm respectively. The length of the latter's frame is an estimate based on the original and on an excavation photograph (Ass ph 5751). O. Pedersén's assignment of exs. 3–5 as duplicates of Ass 918 (ex. 1) is based on Aššur excavation field journals. Ex. 5 is reported to be in Istanbul (Eşki Şark Eşerleri Müzesi), but the museum number of that brick is not known. The originals of exs. 3–5 were not available for study; moreover, no field copy or excavation photograph of their inscriptions are known.

Bibliography

59 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003472/]

This four-line text, which is stamped on several bricks from Aššur and which does not mention the king's genealogy, states that the bricks were for the pedestal under the bulls (alpu) of the gateway of the Adad temple in Aššur. Tadmor referred to this brick inscription as Misc. III, 2 in his Tigl. III.

Access Tiglath-pileser III 59 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003472/]

Sources [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/sources/P450242,P450243,P373503,P450244,P373502,P450245,P450246,P373506,P450247,P373504]:

Commentary

E. Weidner (AfO 3 [1926] p. 5 n. 6) published a composite transcription of exs. 1–9. H. Tadmor (Tigl. III pp. 212–213) erroneously edited this inscription as a three-line text, rather than as a four-line inscription. The inclusion of the title "great king" (MAN GAL) in line 2 suggests that the text should be ascribed to Tiglath-pileser III, rather than to Tiglath-pileser I (Borger, EAK 1 p. 111). The stamped area of exs. 1, 5–7, and 9–10 measures 11×23 cm.

H. Tadmor (Tigl. III p. 212) considered emending GU₄.MEŠ to GU₄.AM.MEŠ since references to alpu as gateway figures in Assyrian palaces are not common, unlike rīmu which is well attested in Neo-Assyrian sources. However, the mention of alpu (written GU₄.MEŠ) in the following text (text no. 60) verifies the reading as GU₄.MEŠ.

Bibliography

60 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003473/]

This fragmentarily preserved text, which is written (not stamped) on a brick from Aššur and which does not mention the king's genealogy, states that the brick was for the pedestal under the bulls (alpu) of the gateway of the Adad temple at Aššur. Although the royal name is completely missing, the inscription should be ascribed to Tiglath-pileser III since it is a (near) duplicate of text no. 59. This text is edited separately from text no. 59 because the brick is inscribed, rather than stamped, because it contains several orthographic variants, and because the brick is smaller in size than the bricks stamped with the previous text. The inscription is written within a frame measuring 10×19 cm.

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Bibliography

61 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003474/]

A stone weight in the shape of a duck discovered at Aššur is inscribed with a short text of Tiglath-pileser III. Three vertical strokes, meaning "three (minas)," are incised just above the text. The two-line proprietary inscription is enclosed within a rectangular frame. The object weighs 2775g. Since the original was not available for study, the present edition is based on the published copies of Nassouhi and Messerschmidt. This text was edited as Misc. IV, 1 in Tadmor, Tigl. III.

Access Tiglath-pileser III 61 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003474/]

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Bibliography

62 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003608/]

In August 1989, the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage discovered a stone weight in the shape of a duck in a tomb hidden under the pavement of Room 57 of the North-West Palace at Kalḫu. Shortly after the discovery of this tomb, it was announced that the tomb belonged to Mullissu-mukannišat-Ninua, a ninth-century queen of Ashurnasirpal II and the mother of Shalmaneser III; an in situ funerary inscription confirmed her identity. A. Fadhil published the short inscription on the duck weight as a text belonging to Tiglath-pileser III. The attribution to Tiglath-pileser III, however, is not entirely certain and thus the weight could belong to the second Assyrian king with this name, as suggested by the archaeological context of the find spot, i.e., in a ninth-century tomb.

Access Tiglath-pileser III 62 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003608/]

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Commentary

There is some confusion with regard to the museum and excavation numbers of the object. The museum and excavation numbers of the Tiglath-pileser duck weighing fifteen minas are either IM 124998 and ND 1989/471 or IM 116000 and ND 1989/472; see al-Rawi, New Light on Nimrud p. 131. The text is written on the duck's back, to the left of the neck, together with an image of a lion etched just below. Similar images of lions appear on objects inscribed with texts of Sargon II and Esarhaddon and this might be evidence that this weight belonged to Tiglath-pileser III, not Tiglath-pileser II. Fifteen vertical strokes are incised on the opposite side of the neck, indicating that the object weighed "fifteen (minas)." The size of the weight remains unpublished and thus is unknown.

Bibliography

63 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003609/]

In 1846, A.H. Layard discovered sixteen bronze weights of various sizes in the shape of crouching lions under one of the colossal winged bulls flanking Entrance b of the throne room (Chamber B) of the North-West Palace at Kalḫu. Thirteen of these are inscribed with Akkadian inscriptions and one of these bears an inscription of Tiglath-pileser III; nine date to the reign of Shalmaneser V, two to the time of Sargon II, and one to the reign of Sennacherib. Tadmor edited this text as Misc. IV, 2 in his Tigl. III.

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Commentary

This lion weight of Tiglath-pileser III weighs 946.462g (according to T.C. Mitchell). Two vertical strokes are incised on the left flank indicating that the object weighed "two (minas)." The inscription is written on the lion's back. For detailed studies of the lion weights discovered by Layard, see Mitchell in Gyselen, Prix pp. 129–138; and Fales, Studies Lipiński pp. 33–55.

Bibliography

64 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q004177/]

A stone bead is inscribed with a proprietary inscription of Tiglath-pileser III. The present location of the object, which was once in the Collection de Clercq, is not known, but a poor quality rolling of this cylinder-shaped bead is in the Louvre (Galter, NABU 1989 p. 41 no. 63). The present edition is based on de Clercq's Neo-Assyrian typeset copy because neither the original nor the rolling in the Louvre (museum number not known) were examined and because the inscription is not legible in the photograph published by de Clercq (Collection 2 pl. XXXVIII). The "copy" presents the text in four lines, whereas it is described elsewhere by de Clercq as being a three-line text: "Sur une de ses faces, elle porte trois lignes d'inscription cunéiforme en caractères archaiques de Babylone; sur une de tranches, une troisième ligne termine cette inscription. Trois traits semblent, en outre, gravés à côté du dernier signe." The rolling of the bead in the Louvre, however, confirms that the inscription was written in four lines. This text is referred to as Misc. V in Tadmor, Tigl. III.

Access Tiglath-pileser III 64 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q004177/]

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Bibliography

Hayim Tadmor & Shigeo Yamada

Hayim Tadmor & Shigeo Yamada, 'Miscellaneous Texts, Part 2', RINAP 1: Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser V, The RINAP 1 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2019 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap1/Tiglath-pileserIII:TextIntroductions/MiscellaneousTexts/Part2/]